Boris Maurussane's second solo album, "Tears of English Town," took shape around a framework of songs linked by their harmonic writing, influenced as much by Brazilian Popular Music (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque) as by a sophisticated pop tradition (Robert Wyatt, The Beach Boys, The High Llamas, Stereolab…) or by the highly arranged jazz of Herbie Hancock or Gil Evans. His aim for this album was to further expand his melodic and rhythmic writing, and to venture a little further beyond his initial Anglo-Saxon psychedelic pop culture, particularly towards Brazil, a destination already hinted at on his previous album. The result is a lush musical landscape that could be described as Third Stream Pop, blending sophisticated pop, jazz, and arrangements inspired by classical and modern music (Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, but also Philip Glass and Steve Reich) and Third Stream itself (Gil Evans, Modern Jazz Quartet, etc.).

To allow the songs to fully express their character and embrace these inspirations, he called upon musicians from jazz, classical, baroque, and pop backgrounds. An elite rhythm section comprised of Jean Thevenin, a jazz drummer who has embraced pop (François and the Atlas Mountains, Mathieu Boogaerts, Voyou, etc.), and Antoine Brunet, a bassist who also navigates between jazz and pop (Lapsus, Troy Von Balthazar, etc.), gave the album breadth and dynamism. Pianists Sandrine Marchetti, from the jazz world (Lois Le Van, Flaws), and Jan Stumke (Olivier Rocabois, Frederic Lo), a frequent collaborator of Boris, also significantly enriched the melodic flowering of the arrangements. The brass section is likewise composed of jazz musicians: Julien Alour on trumpet, Jerry Edwards on trombone, and Jean-Philippe Scali on saxophone. The flutes of Arnaud Sèche (Forever Pavot, Ojard), as well as the bassoon, oboe, clarinet, and French horn, broadened the palette, resulting in an explosion of colors. Spontaneous improvisations on trumpet and flute completed the ensemble, adding an element of the unexpected. The arrangements gained a silky texture and an impressionistic, pointillist iridescence thanks to a string quintet, a harp, and a vibraphone, for a highly cinematic effect.

Boris Maurussane's work on guitars has expanded here with the use of a romantic guitar perfectly suited to rhythms inspired by Brazilian music, lush 12-string guitars, and a highly personal interpretation of jazz-tinged psychedelia in his use of electric guitars and effects (tremolo, echo, distortion, bottleneck, various objects to "prepare" the guitar…) and some very Coltrane-esque solos. This modern reinterpretation of psychedelia is also, and above all, evident in his work with synthesizers, particularly modular ones, in collaboration with DOMOTIC and Hadrien Grange (Dorian Pimpernel, Tahiti 80). Finally, Boris Maurussane's vocals on this album are more assertive and confident, gaining in lyricism and intensity, while retaining the Wyatt-like gentleness and intimacy that characterize them. This work on vocals is perfectly showcased, with originality and inventiveness, in the mixing.

The lyrics themselves tell new stories. They deal with migrations (The Season’s Ending), unforeseen events and imponderables: fires (On Stilts), storms and climatic and romantic upheavals (Triangle); with the confrontation of viewpoints: masculine and feminine (Tears of English Town, The End), the contemplation of destruction and violence versus the light and gentleness of love—or the love of gentleness and light (Decipher), the spiritual impulse inspired by nature versus a very masculine and anti-abortion religious community (Christians from the Lake), and ascension versus fall (Going Down).

All these recordings were enhanced by the producers' mixing: Stéphane Laporte, AKA Domotic (Maxwell Farrington and Le Superhomard, Tahiti 80, Dorian Pimpernel…), and his remarkable work as a painter on the sonic palette and electronic arrangements and textures—without which this album would lack the life, brilliance, depth, and reality it possesses—and Emmanuel Mario, AKA Astrobal (Laetitia Sadier, Nina Savary, Leo Blomov…), for an ethereal, sharp, and dazzling sound. Finally, Mike Grinser's (Manmade Mastering) mastering allowed these visions to take on a grand scale, with all the space and brilliance they required, without compressing any of the dynamics or colors.

“With this album, I would like to offer a Third Stream Pop Music, a pointillist (and impressionistic) Pop that is a pure expression of joy, a joy that can be glimpsed and that remains possible despite the constant temptation of despair and the chaos of the world, by translating the emotion provoked by nature, color, light, all these intangible things which, failing to be concrete reasons for hope, are sources of wonder and bliss.”